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UN / WORLD INVESTMENT REPORT
STORY: UN / WORLD INVESTMENT REPORT
TRT: 2:18
SOURCE: UNIFEED
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / NATS
DATELINE: 12 JUNE 2019, NEW YORK CITY / FILE
FILE – RECENT – NEW YORK CITY
1.Wide shot, exterior, United Nations Headquarters
12 JUNE 2019, NEW YORK CITY
2.Wide shot, press briefing room
3.SOUNDBITE (English) Navid Hanif, Director of the Financing for Sustainable Development Office at the Department of Economic and Social Affairs, United Nations:
“The Foreign Direct Investment is essential to achieve the 2030 Agenda because it is a stable flow of resources which is targeted on production, manufacturing services and that generates jobs and brings jobs to society which eventually help someone to get out of poverty. So FDI is a key resource flow for developing countries.”
4.Wide shot, press briefing room
5. SOUNDBITE (English) Navid Hanif, Director of the Financing for Sustainable Development Office at the Department of Economic and Social Affairs, United Nations:
“The FDI continues to slide, we saw it in 2018. There was a 13 per cent decline which is 1.3 trillion dollars, but mostly among developing countries, and it is because of repatriation of capital, shifts in tax policies and incentives. But for developing countries, the trend is still encouraging, it is not as it was before the crisis, but they have received sufficient FDI flows.”
6. Med shot, reporters
7. SOUNDBITE (English) Navid Hanif, Director of the Financing for Sustainable Development Office at the Department of Economic and Social Affairs, United Nations:
“The World Investment Report this year has a very special focus on special economic zones which have been used in many emerging economies to advance economic growth and development. Ove the last five years, 1,000 special economic zones were established, and we anticipate that there will be 500 coming up in the coming years.”
8. Wide shot, press briefing room
9. SOUNDBITE (English) Navid Hanif, Director of the Financing for Sustainable Development Office at the Department of Economic and Social Affairs, United Nations:
“The future special economic zones should focus on that the zones are not only delivering economic growth but also social benefits, and help in preserving the environment, in fighting climate change, in creating equal societies, so which means the evaluation and monitoring of the zones contribution will also include social factors and environmental indicators.”
10. Wide shot, press briefing room
Global foreign direct investment (FDI) flows slid by 13% in 2018, to US$1.3 trillion from $1.5 trillion the previous year – the third consecutive annual decline, according to UNCTAD’s World Investment Report 2019.
The contraction was largely precipitated by United States multinational enterprises (MNEs) repatriating earnings from abroad, making use of tax reforms introduced by the country in 2017, designed for that purpose.
Hardest hit by the earnings repatriation were developed countries, where flows fell by a quarter to $557 billion − levels last seen in 2004.
SOUNDBITE (English) Navid Hanif, Director of the Financing for Sustainable Development Office at the Department of Economic and Social Affairs, United Nations:
“The FDI continues to slide, we saw it in 2018. There was a 13 per cent decline which is 1.3 trillion dollars, but mostly among developing countries, and it is because of repatriation of capital, shifts in tax policies and incentives. But for developing countries, the trend is still encouraging, it is not as it was before the crisis, but they have received sufficient FDI flows.”
The tax-driven fall in FDI, which occurred in the first two quarters, was cushioned by increased transaction activity in the second half of 2018. The value of cross-border merger and acquisitions (M&As) rose by 18 per cent, fueled by United States MNEs using liquidity in their foreign affiliates.
Developing country flows managed to hold steady (rising by two per cent), which helped push flows to the developing world to more than half (54 per cent) of global flows, from 46 per cent in 2017 and just over a third before the financial crisis.
Half of the top 20 host economies in the world are developing and transition economies.
Despite the FDI decline, the United States remained the largest recipient of FDI, followed by China, Hong Kong (China) and Singapore.
In terms of outward investors, Japan became the largest followed by China and France. The United States was out of the top 20 list, due to its MNEs massive repatriation of investment earnings.
SOUNDBITE (English) Navid Hanif, Director of the Financing for Sustainable Development Office at the Department of Economic and Social Affairs, United Nations:
“The Foreign Direct Investment is essential to achieve the 2030 Agenda because it is a stable flow of resources which is targeted on production, manufacturing services and that generates jobs and brings jobs to society which eventually help someone to get out of poverty. So FDI is a key resource flow for developing countries.”
The report this year also has a special focus on special economic zones. Ove the last five years, 1,000 special economic zones were established, and there will be 500 coming up in the coming years.
SOUNDBITE (English) Navid Hanif, Director of the Financing for Sustainable Development Office at the Department of Economic and Social Affairs, United Nations:
“The future special economic zones should focus on that the zones are not only delivering economic growth but also social benefits, and help in preserving the environment, in fighting climate change, in creating equal societies, so which means the evaluation and monitoring of the zones contribution will also include social factors and environmental indicators.”
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